Artist of the Week - Baek Ji Young

Baek Ji Young

PROFILE
Date of Birth: 1978/03/25
Debut: “Choice” (1st album , 1999
Education: Jin-Sun Girl’s Junior High, Eun-Gwang Girl’s High School, Paekche Art College
Physique: 168cm, 46kg
Place of Birth: Seoul, Korea
Hobbies: roller blading, movies

BIOGRAPHY

In the summer of 1999, Baek Ji-young, a sexy dancer with a husky voice, released her first album. The album, including the title song “Choice”, had a Latin beat which was fairly new to the Korean audience. However, the combination of Baek Ji-young’s sexy and passionate salsa dance and the plaintive melody of the song “Choice” was more than enough to grab the Korean music listeners’ attention.

The following year, Baek released her second album, and with the songs such as “Dash” and “Sad Salsa”, Baek Ji-young successfully became a major musician in Korea. Her singing skills, going up till the fourth octave, and the cute look made it impossible for the Koreans not to like.

However, in November of the same year her second album was released (and when she was on the zenith of her popularity), she was involved in a sex video scandal and was banned from major broadcast stations.  Despite the hard times, Baek made a come-back with her third and fourth albums (2001) and (2003), but only through cable television and radio. However, the title song “Fall” and “Smile” were loved by her fans, and they were waiting to be able to see Baek Ji-young again in regular television programs.

In addition, during the long break between the second and third album, she released her second album in Taiwan, and sold nearly 30,000 discs, becoming a great success internationally. Since the release of her 4th album, a collection of Baek’s new songs wasn’t produced until 3 years later. In 2006, Baek Ji-young came back with a new album entitled “Smile Again”. The title song of the album, “I Won’t Fall in Love Again”, gained great popularity, putting Baek on top of the local charts again after a long time. Baek’s 5th album “Smile Again” took more than 2 year to produce. Prior to the production of the album, more than 50 songs were recorded. The total length of the recordings amounted to more than 1,000 hours. The best 13 songs were chosen among the 50 songs to be listed in the album. Until her 4th album, Baek focused more on upbeat dance music, but in her 5th album, she displayed her talent in various genres of pop music including lyrical ballads, dance numbers also with some re-made versions of hit songs by other singers.

In Sept 7, 2007, Baek’s sixth album, The Sixth Miracle, was released, with the lead single "I Only Need One Love". She won an award for the album at the Seoul Music Awards in January 2008. She was scheduled to undergo vocal cord surgery to remove a cyst some time in February 2008. Although there were fears that her singing voice may change, the fear of losing her voice entirely is what prompted her to go ahead with the operation.

She underwent surgery on her vocal cords in early 2008. She released her latest album in November 2008, titled Sensibility, and all ears were tuned to the possibility of a complete makeover in the star’s beloved vocals. Indeed, there clearly exists a significant change in her sound, as Baek traded in her signature husky timbre for a pure crystal tone. Yet her voice still bears traces of her trademark sentimentality that has earned her a place in K-pop as its reigning queen of ballads.

In Sensibility, Baek collaborates with producer Bang Shi Hyeok (who previously worked with Rain and g.o.d) on a variety of musical genres, including urban hip-hop (Go – Track 1) and house electronica (Ip sool eul joo go "Offer My Lips” – Track 2). The album’s principal track Chong ma jun gut cheorum ("Like Being Hit by a Bullet" – Track 4) features an exotic blend of melancholic sentiment, a modern rock beat and soulful lyrics. Other highlights include Yeoja deul man ah neun gerjitmal ("Lies Only Women Know" – Track 5) composed by The Name, Bam se do rok ("Throughout The Night" – Track 11) featuring boy band 2AM’s Jo Kwon, and Melody featuring hip hop duo Mighty Mouse.

DISCOGRAPHY

* Sorrow (1st album, 1999): Choice Small Wish Burden
* Rouge (2nd album, 2000): Sad Salsa Dash Don’t Ask
* Special 1+2 (2000): Dash Choice/ Burden
* Tres (3rd album, 2001): Fall Emotion/ Thought of you
* Smile (4th album, 2003): Smile Betrayal Deep  PURCHASE THE ALBUM
* Ultimate Best (2 disc special best album, 2003)  PURCHASE THE ALBUM

* Smile Again (5th album, 2006)  PURCHASE THE ALBUM

I Won’t Fall in Love Again, Ez Do * Dance, Woo Ah, Festival, Nail, I Love You, Ironic
* The Sixth Miracle (6th album, 2007) : Intro, A love enough, Tears number of reasons, Not a phone call from, Long-standing habit, Lanjue, A woman, Everything you love, Interlude, Like, Do not move do not move, Only to leave, Feel that the time and Binggo Binggo (Remake)
* Sensibility (7th album, 2008)  PURCHASE THE ALBUM

LINKS
Music Video – Like Being Hit by a Bullet

Soompi Thread – HERE

c: KBS World + YahooKR/ + Wikipedia + adikkeluangman